As part of St John’s Innovation Centre’s delivery of Innovate UK Business Growth services across the East of England we are pleased to advertise this exciting role which will continue our engagement in Cambridge and the wider East of England ecosystem. Alongside our Innovation & Growth team, in which this role sits, St John’s Innovation Centre is home to 80+ knowledge based & technical businesses, “houses” 300+ virtual tenants and has conference and catering facilities.
This is an opportunity for a high calibre business professional, with specialist experience in supporting businesses to directly contribute to driving business innovation and growth in the UK. The role will identify ambitious high growth potential innovative SMEs in the East of England ecosystem and support them in accelerating their journey to significantly grow and scale. In particular, the role will require experience and knowledge of the strategic funding and finance needs of innovative high growth potential companies in order to help them to become more investment ready, and investable, and in a position to harness their growth and scaling potential. The role will also play an important part in driving the Innovate UK “Place” agenda acting as an interface with accelerators, launchpads, Freeports and/or other regional clusters working alongside both Innovate UK Business Growth Innovation and Growth Specialists colleagues and Scale Up Directors, drawing heavily on local and national ecosystem partners.
This is a unique opportunity to work with a small and flexible team. We are looking for a motivated candidate with considerable experience in SME development and helping them become investment ready and a great ability to build lasting professional relationships.
As a member of our Innovation and Growth Team, the Ecosystem Innovation Growth Specialist will:
- Use specialist skills and tools provided to identify ambitious innovation orientated SMEs with the potential to scale, who could benefit from Innovate UK Business Growth support
- Generate a pipeline of suitable leads that could benefit from support by using excellent networking skills, attending relevant organisations within Cambridge and the East of England. This may include making presentations to interested groups, delivering workshops, attending conferences and leading events.
- Assess and understand the companies’ specific needs and introduce relevant Innovate UK Business Growth services (and connectivity) along different phases of the company’s journey as it grows
- Provide strategic funding and finance and investment readiness support
- Interact with companies to stimulate an increase of their ambition to scale, augmenting other support available locally. Always acting as the ‘honest broker”, letting the client decide who to work with and when
- Act as a ‘go to’ resource for clients from the Innovate UK Launchpads, and through referrals from Freeports and other regional clusters and accelerators
- Provide tailored support to the companies’ growth and scaling needs, connecting them with the people and opportunities that will accelerate their growth both in the UK and internationally, by being agile, flexible and responsive, supporting them effectively and at a pace set by them
- Maintain a strong connection with, and support the development of, the national Innovate UK Business Growth “invest-ability” pathway and the Innovate UK Scaleup Programme
- Work with Innovate UK colleagues, British Business Bank regional colleagues and intermediaries plus other key regional stakeholders to reinforce the close co-operation that will enable businesses to navigate the local innovation, investment and growth support environment and where necessary establish local co-operation to support achievement of this
- Deliver, facilitate and attend workshops and events to promote client success and the impact of Innovate UK Business Growth. This may include attending occasional national/international conferences and exhibitions and possibly supporting client companies with their national/international missions
- To work with the team to contribute to the delivery of contractual requirements including high quality reporting, development of success stories, case studies and CRM updates
- To be part of the public facing team of the Centre for visits and for networking and speaking events
- To be able to create content and deliver training and workshops in line with the contractual requirements of the team
- To work alongside the operational and services team at the Centre, to support the activities promoted with the aim of ensuring that the Centre and Park operates to its full potential
Salary range £55-£63k plus benefits
For further details click here:
Please send CV and covering letter to Kirsten Masson, Director of Innovation Programmes kmasson@stjohns.co.uk